[ENG-ESP-ITA-POR-GER-FRA-TUR] Paris May 1st: General assemblies of workers! #indignados #ows #occupy #M1 #MayDay

The 1st of May is International Workers’ Day.  In many of the world’s cities millions of us will gather to demonstrate in defence of our rights.

For thirty years now, the deconstruction of the welfare state has been underway. Each successive government has worked hand in glove with the financial markets, submitted to their will – and likewise bent us to their will.

We are subjected to growing inequality, to the fear of dismissal, to the policy of maximising profits, to stress. We are egged on to compete against each other and instructed to tighten our belts. Workforces are reduced, work loses its meaning, production is offshored, jobs become more and more insecure, unemployment becomes the norm.

Each day more people’s livelihoods become insecure, more workers are tormented by their jobs and occasionally even succumb to them.

Our freedoms and rights are progressively encroached on, including the most crucial one:  that of deciding collectively how we shall live.  We no longer live in democratic societies.

This predicament arises in many different countries.

Confronted by such a challenge, social movements and citizens’ initiatives have arisen and grown in various parts of the world.

Citizens have gathered to organise themselves and rekindle hope.  During the last few months several general strikes have broken out in Europe.

International networks today summon the population to a worldwide day of protest on 15 May. They likewise call on the people to gather on 1 May in general workers’ assemblies. The same day a general strike will take place in the United States.

Organise yourselves as part of this worldwide mobilisation!

Let us draw on our strength, namely that of being the majority that organises itself and mobilises.  Victory is won on the streets!

ON THE 1ST OF MAY:  GENERAL WORKERS’ ASSEMBLIES AFTER THE DEMONSTRATIONS.

Translation: Carl Stoll

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